Republican lawmakers in Kansas approved a plan early Friday to end gender-affirming care for transgender youth, capping a week of intensified efforts to roll back LGBTQ rights.

The Kansas House voted 70 to -52 in favor of a bill that would require the state’s medical board to revoke the licenses of physicians providing gender-affirming care to minors, even though many professionals working with transgender youth see such care as essential to maintain mental health and to prevent suicides. The Senate then voted by 23 votes

– Unpleasant

12 to approve the measure and send it to the Democratic administration. Laura Kelly.

The governor is expected to veto, after promising LGBTQ youth at a Statehouse lobbying day last month that she would protect their rights and reject any measure “aimed at harming or discriminating against you.” Supporters have not the two-thirds majority in both chambers is required to override a veto.

LGBTQ

–

rights advocates believe they see a national effort to wipe out transgender people, nun

–

binary gender

–

not

–

conform and gender

–

fluid people of American society, at least legally. Dr. Beth Oller, a small-town family physician in northwestern Kansas who provides gender-affirming care, saw GOP lawmakers scramble for a dog whistle to unite their party.

This one was a winner because they found it appetizing to strip rights from a population that was small and didn’t affect most of them, she said in an email Thursday evening. They fool themselves with groupthink so they can pretend it’s not about hatred it’s about protection, but we know the truth.

As states enact anti-trans laws, California is considering one of its own bills

Thirteen other states have enacted laws against gender-affirming care for minors, though federal judges have blocked their enforcement in Alabama and Arkansas. Republican lawmakers in the US have introduced hundreds of proposals this year to push back LGBTQ rights.

Prohibition supporters in Kansas debate protecting children from medical care associated with side effects or

That

cannot be reversed. They claim that only an adult and not a minor parent can consent to the treatments.

We all know that kids change their minds, said Wichita Republican Representative Susan Humphries. How many children know what they want to be when they grow up?

The care prohibited by the bill includes anti-puberty drugs and hormone therapy. While the bill does not prevent transgender youth from receiving counseling or psychiatric therapy, the measure applies to acts that are performed or cause acts that confirm the child’s perception of the child’s gender if it differs from it at birth assigned gender.

A transgender psychologist has helped hundreds of teens transition. But rising numbers worry her

What I’m kind of saying goodbye to is with surgical procedures, said State Representative Steve Howe, a Republican from central Kansas. I agree that all children have value, which is why I’m going to support the bill.

Kansas’s vote came after lawmakers passed a parent’s rights bill on Thursday, allowing families to take their children out of classes and activities with LGBTQ-themed materials and another measure restricting rooming arrangements for transgender students on field trips.

Republicans passed a broad bathroom bill on Tuesday that would also prevent transgender people from changing the gender on their driver’s licenses. On Wednesday, they overruled Kelly’s veto of a bill that would ban transgender female athletes from girls’ and women’s sports.

People are finally getting tired of this push to push our kids in the wrong direction, and I think this is a backlash from parents, from people who see this as a big problem,” said Senator Mike Thompson, a

conservative,

Republican from Kansas City who supported all measures. For hundreds and hundreds and thousands of years I think this has not been a problem. Then all of a sudden it seems like that.”

Following California, lawmakers in 18 states want to provide shelter for trans youth

Humphries suggested that a social contagion driven by social media was increasingly confusing young people’s desire to transition to a different gender, echoing an idea that has been debunked by multiple studies.

Transgender medical treatments for children and teens have been available in the US for over a decade and are endorsed by major medical associations.

Gender-affirming drugs are lifesaving, said Jordan Smith, a Kansas City resident who identifies as genderfluid and is the Kansas Chapter Leader of Parasol Patrol, a group advocating for LGBTQ youth, after a transgender

–

rights meeting last week at the state house.

You know, the kids are trying to understand who they are and they’re supposed to look to the adults to have that guidance,” they added, “and the adults want to say, no, you can’t be like that. No, that’s not correct. You’re just confused.”

Following last week’s meeting, Ian Benalcazar, a 13-year-old transgender boy from northeastern Kansas, said his decision to transition socially to male was one of the biggest decisions of my life.

I feel so much freer and so much more myself, and it allowed me to make so many great connections with people and just be authentically myself, he said.

Oller, the doctor, said she has patients who are terrified they won’t be able to access care and she fears that introducing a law against gender-affirming care could force her to leave her small town.

But she also said she’d probably sue the state because I’m not going to pass up on this.